


From Above, Not Below

by writingramblr



Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Mad Mad Distopia, Evil Superman, F/M, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), Non-Graphic Violence, One Shot, Spoilers, Time Travel, Wonderbat, bruce's vision was a possible future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:15:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6381535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/pseuds/writingramblr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex's little speech turns out to be dead on, when Bruce Wayne fails to save Martha Kent, the world is upended, and Superman becomes the harbinger of doom.</p><p> </p><p>[aka a mad max AU inspired by Bruce's trippy vision and Junkie XL's music]</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Above, Not Below

**Author's Note:**

> this is wild crazy exposition and tense changing and its crazy did i mention that?
> 
> and yes i copied some of Max's little narrating speech, sue me. 
> 
> please don't im broke.
> 
> i'm not so good at writing fight scenes or violence but i tried. also i'm sorry if i killed off too many of your faves. and i didn't know what to do with Doomsday in this version of the story so he's a vague threat bumbling around.  
> DID I MENTION SPOILERS yikes.  
> just saying.

_The Devil in the sky._

_Destruction came from above, not below._

_I know, because I let him loose and set him free to wreak havoc._

_My name is Bruce Wayne, and my world is fire and blood._

_And sand, dirt and smoke. But mostly death and destruction._

_It all started one night, ten years ago._

_When I made the mistake of my life._

***

“I’ll kill her, I will!”

The Russian was screaming as he held the flame thrower at Martha Kent’s back, and the black clad bat of Gotham grimaced,

“I believe you.”

But he still pulled the trigger.

The massive gun fired and then his vision went red.

He leapt towards her, but his hands could not reach far enough.

They burned, and he fell to the floor empty handed.

His heart clenched in his chest, and he wondered if, miles away, Superman could hear the sound of failure.

***

“He’s turned against us all, we’re doomed!”

The reporters mainly screeched the same basic thing, all the while Alfred’s words bounced around Bruce’s head.

“The fever that makes good men cruel.”

Gods could bleed and angels could fall.

And the Superman had become mankind’s worst enemy.

All because Batman had killed his mother.

Well, failing to save her was the same thing in Clark’s eyes.

He offered the governments a choice, stand with him, or die.

They tended to choose the former.

***

Even his former friends had been horrified by his actions.

Bruce had watched as Lois Lane was driven mad by what Superman did, and when they carted her away, clad in white, he knew it shouldn’t have been a straight jacket that she wore.

Lex Luthor’s mangled corpse had served as a warning, a threat, what could happen if one got on the wrong side of the God.

His little mad scientist project had been nuked to oblivion, and still survived, and Superman let it. Let it walk free upon the scorched earth.

Metropolis was destroyed, and Gotham was a burning wreck.

Half of the East Coast was uninhabitable and wherever the Monster roamed, so did it become.

Bruce Wayne barely escaped with his life, and only because the Bat Cave was also a hyper strength bomb shelter.

The woman he’d known as Diana Prince vanished into the night without a trace, and he wondered if he’d ever lay eyes on her again.

Man had let down the Goddess of Themyscira.

It wouldn’t be the last time.

***

 _Clark_ was gone. Now all that remained was Kal-El, rightfully worshiped where he went as a god, and feared for what he had done and could do.

The red cape that billowed behind him was no longer a signal of incoming rescue, but a whisper of a warning that death followed.

The ‘S’ on his chest didn’t stand for hope, not since Martha had died unjustly and at the hands of the scum vigilante of Gotham, it was his badge of shame, that he’d let his mother down, and Lois too.

He grimaced, and the world’s cries and shouts of agony blended into chaos, so he ascended to the heavens, skyward, where the sun would heal him.

It hurt to think of her.

He knew her mind was brilliant and beautiful as her face, but he’d had no idea how fragile. She’d touched the spear of Kryptonite too long perhaps, and it had affected her faster than any human.

Yet the black suited bat demon had suffered no ill effects.

There was no justice in the world, truly.

Only what he made of it.

Kal-El basked in the sunlight, and listened to the world below, as all the soldiers and senators and kings and rulers scrambled around, doing his bidding and living in fear of what his eyes of fire and his hands of steel could do.

The only problem remained was to destroy the remains of the Kryptonite.

Well, he would just have to go for a swim.

***

Lexcorp lived on.

But it fed and breathed and drank Wayne money.

Bruce could no longer pretend to be anything other than what he was, a scavenger, out for any way, any means, any chance to try and stop the man of red and blue.

The death toll rose every day, the planet was dying, choking to death under the black skies of ash and the burn of radiation.

Soon only the Metahumans and the chosen few of Superman’s army would remain.

But there was still one last hope. One last fragment of Kryptonite, and Bruce had it.

It was on its way, when he got the call.

Disrupted.

A road block.

With a shield and glowing lasso.

He growled to himself.

She had returned, and she was getting in his way.

Before he could go after her and demand she stand down, the truck had pulled into the rubble of a mansion, on the outskirts of the remains of Gotham, and she was driving.

“Diana.”

“Bruce.”

She looked tired.

The brown cloak she wore did not hide her gleaming armor and tiara.

“What are you doing?”

Her smile was tight.

“I’m helping you. I’m apologizing.”

Bruce frowned.

“For what?”

She jumped down from the truck and drew her sword,

“For not killing the crazy god when I had the chance.”

She walked around to the back of the truck and sliced off the hinges to the door, revealing a trap inside, a dozen men surrounding the cargo.

Bruce quickly leapt into action and began to punch his way inside, while Diana dispatched anyone who tried to escape.

Eventually the path to the case was clear and Bruce unsnapped the latches, lifting the Lexcorp marked lid off, to reveal a greenish light, but it was not from the meteor, it was from twin green light bulbs attached to a bomb.

The timer read five seconds, and Bruce’s eyes went wide.

“Run!”

He roared to Diana, and when she saw his expression as he turned to her, she didn’t hesitate.

The explosion was enough to make even her shield grow hot in her hands, and the distance they’d managed in the short time was still close enough for Bruce to feel the lower half of his face sting.

“What does this mean?”

Diana finally asked, when the smoke had cleared, and the fire had died down.

“It means he must already have mined the rest of it, and he’s hiding it.”

“That’s not good.”

Diana replied and Bruce shook his head,

“It means he’s scared, of me at least. He probably doesn’t know you’re back yet.”

Diana grimaced,

“At least I didn’t come alone. Barry is around here, and he’s trying to finish the equation, to properly go back, to tell you to fix your mistake.”

Bruce stared at her, and there were flickers of memory dancing on the edge of his mind.

The long night, the computer, the dreams, nightmares. A vision.

“What?”

She set her hand on his shoulder,

“This can be all undone. But it’s very dangerous, messing with time. If he does something wrong, it could be made a hundred times worse.”

Looking around the city, at the wreckage and carnage and disaster that had been wrought before, Bruce could hardly imagine it being worse.

***

While the world eats away at itself, Lois rots inside her padded cell, and visions plague her, of a world without Superman, one where Clark never came to Metropolis, and she died at the hand of something simple, a drunk driver, a severe flu, or even old age.

Her eyes are afire from all the tears she’s shed over the fallen angel she loved.

Sometimes in her dreams, the tinge of red fades, and she can almost hear his voice again in her ear, soft, gentle and kind.

But that version of the man of steel has died.

Now hell has become reality and the Devil rules the earth.

***

“What’s plan B?”

Bruce dared to ask.

Diana has remained silent throughout most of dinner, which consisted of shredded pork, and eggs from powder with something like spicy salt on everything.

Living like a trapped soldier in wartime has taught the former billionaire a lot about himself.

“I kill him. If Barry fails to get to you, the right you, I kill Superman.”

Bruce gritted his teeth,

“Why would he let you close enough?”

Diana smiled tightly,

“I’m as alien as he is. He doesn’t have to trust me, but he can’t see through me, or break me. It’s got to be me.”

Bruce clenched his fist around nothing and then sank lower in his chair,

“Are you sure that’s the only option?”

“We can’t snap him back. They’ve already tried.”

Bruce frowned at her, and then noticed the pain on the edge of her expression.

She was more than tired.

She was exhausted.

He’d been fighting day to day to live, to survive, and find a way to keep the secret weapon safe, but once again, it had been all for naught.

Meanwhile, Diana had been playing the long game, fighting and planning and working with the team he’d only dreamt of forming.

  
“So when do we do this?”

Diana looked over at him, and shook her head.

“There’s no ‘we’ about it Bruce. I will be going to seek him out. He’s been rumored to be hiding in the Arctic. They say he has a palace of ice.”

She smiled faintly, and her eyes grew distant. As if remembering.

Her voice had gotten soft, and the way her accent formed over his name was almost fond.

“You’re joking. You came all this way, you’re here, and you’re going to tell me no?”

He was angry all of a sudden, and it felt good. After so many years of nothing but fighting and killing and resorting to desperate measures, he wanted to feel that rush of adrenaline in earnest.

But he didn’t want to hit her. A different face with dark hair and blue eyes filled his vision and his ears were roaring.

A slap that nearly knocked him out, while pushing him to the ground brought him back.

Diana had _hit_ him.

He smiled dazedly up at her from where he lay sprawled out, and she had never looked more fierce, deadly, and ethereally beautiful than in that moment.

“I will tell you no, and you will listen.”

Her eyes held the fire he remembered, and he nodded, still cupping his sore jaw,

“Yes ma’am.”

She held out her hand to him, and he took it with his free arm, letting her pull him back to his feet. What happened next surprised him, as well as took his breath away.

She didn’t stop, she moved closer, and with their even height, stepped right into his arms, leaning in to kiss him soundly on the lips.

It only lasted a few seconds, but when she pulled back, Bruce could feel his mouth tingling and his skin burned from where she’d hit and touched him.

“I should go.”

She spoke at last, shattering the heavy silence.

“You could stay. Sleep, or not.”

He glanced at the cot in the corner, and back to her, but she was already shouldering her bag, and strapping her sword back on.

“With any luck, this world won’t exist much longer, and we can figure things out then.”

Before she could leave, he called after her,

“I don’t believe in luck.”

He didn’t see her smile.

***

There was a presence approaching, and when he focused his sight beyond the columns of ice and the mountains of crystal, he frowned, for he could not see clearly.

Flying outside his icy palace, Kal-El stopped short, recognizing the faint outline of a warrior goddess from another lifetime.

“Diana.”

His mind supplied.

She was clad in heavy brown robes and a black scarf covered most of her face, but he could see the faint sunlight glisten off of the crown she wore.

“What brings you to my home, war or peace?”

He called out to her, and he saw her eyes narrow, from a smile or a grimace, he didn’t know.

Both her hands were empty, but he knew her sword and her lasso couldn’t be far from her reach.

“I’ve come to have a diplomatic conversation, so peace, I suppose.”

Kal-El tilted his head, and looked behind her, but there was no one there.

“Very well. Please, come inside. It’s warmer.”

Diana shrugged off the implication.

“I don’t feel the cold as humans do. Don’t worry about my comfort.”

He nodded, and she fell into step beside him.

But all the while, he couldn’t help but think she hadn’t actually come alone.

***

Red armor, yellow mask, no red, and white gloves.

Barry Allen breathed deep, and then exhaled slowly. Diana had impressed upon him how important the mission was, and he knew better than anyone the cost that humanity was paying.

It seemed like just yesterday he’d been buying milk at the corner store, foiling a robbery, and then resuming what he thought was normal life.

Then the sky had caught fire.

The city had fallen, and a mad titan of a monster had been unleashed.

He shivered.

Not everyone could outrun the beast.

No one could run like he could.

A smile twitched over his lips before dying.

There would be plenty of time for laughter and jokes when he’d gone and found Bruce Wayne, warned him of the disaster, and saved the world.

Barry Allen, savior of the world, he liked the sound of that, although, he wouldn’t have done it alone, truly.

As he took off running, red and gold and white swam in his vision, and there were sparks, flashing and snapping here and there. Different timelines, different decisions being made, showing the world how it needed to spin.

He gritted his teeth, and pressed forward, ever faster, ever farther.

Thunder crashed and lightening struck, and time itself cracked in two, three, and four planes, as he leapt back.

People like ghosts in his sight, he went right through them, and moments and events like vapor appeared and vanished all around him.

No mistakes, no confusion.

He needed to find Bruce Wayne, and warn him.

***

There was a cold dig of metal on Diana’s thigh. A weapon concealed that Kal-El would not see coming until it was too late.

A blade sharpened with Kryptonite. She would drive it into his heart, if Barry did not succeed in his mission.

She would know within the hour if he had, or not.

She watched the maniac blue eyes of the alien before her, and wished she could fix him, as he was, return him to being the hero the world of man had wanted, but it was not possible.

He’d been twisted, and consumed by his hatred for good, for truth and for hope.

He’d become his own worst nightmare.

She knew all about the fall of Krypton, how Kal’s birth parents had tried to prevent it, and if they’d still lived, they’d be horrified to see what their son had become.

All this and more she’d learned from the remnants of the ship, after the creature Lex Luthor had helped birth had run free, she’d hidden there, hoping to discover some means of defeating both it and Kal, but she’d come up empty.

The seas, polluted and drained as they were becoming, were still where Arthur, or Aquaman as he’d been known briefly, did his best work.

With the help of the surviving marine species, he’d managed to herd the monster away from important relics and valuable places, deep within the oceans.

But now, none of it would matter, and the clock was still ticking, pushing them closer and closer to the end.

Diana smile felt forced, and it was.

Tears were stinging her eyes, and Kal-El probably thought the cold was just getting to her.

“My soldiers have been tracking the batman, and I almost can’t believe he’s made it this long. What has he been doing for money?”

It was a joke.

The mad god was making a joke, and Diana needed to laugh, needed to keep the charade up a little longer. Buy Barry a bit more time.

Delay the reason for her shaking hands, and rapid heart just for a bit.

***

Bruce didn’t just sit idle in his fortress of a shelter, no, he was out on patrol, riding the bike that had once been for fun, but now running on vapors as he made a third lap of the city wreckage.

He was being followed.

They thought they were clever, invisible, and unseen. But when a pack moves, they make noise.

Whether they are super soldiers or guerilla fighters, they leave footprints.

Or in their case, tire tracks.

Though the sun was setting a blood red into the hazy orange sky, he could hear the faint roar of their engines now.

He’d take ‘em. He’d been thirsting for a fight after Diana had hit him, and this would provide just enough stress relief.

The bike was about dead anyway.

On the upcoming ridge, he dove of the side and then fired at the engine as soon as it crested and he was far enough away.

The resulting explosion outshone the sun for a moment, and it certainly confused his pursuers.

Long enough for him to sneak up and snipe one of them off, and sending the rest into chaos.

He smirked.

He’d missed this.

***

Clouds and clouds of smoke were covering his vision, and the goggles did him no good. Bruce was there! Lying on his desk, asleep. Amidst stacks of papers and in front of a glowing screen.

Barry nearly cried in relief.

It was him.

It had to be.

Three false leads and then the Bruce Wayne with grey hair at the temples, and the timeline matched Diana’s precise instructions.

But when he sat up and stared at Barry with confusion, he knew something was wrong,

“Bruce! It’s her! It’s-“

A temporal spark trailed along his arm, and shocked him, cutting off his voice. He shook his head, and lifted up his visor, hoping his face would trigger a reaction, the memory he needed.

“She’s the key! Clark is Sup-“

Another spark.

Bruce was squinting and shaking his head.

Barry couldn’t keep the portal open any longer, and his legs were burning from the effort.

He yelled out in desperation, but there was nothing but blackness in his eyes.

Legs locking beneath him, he collapsed, and let the waves of shimmering timelines carry him back to the present, wherever that would be.

***

Kal-El was turned away from her, looking over something in the horizon that only he could see, and she knew it was time.

Way too much time had passed, and nothing had happened.

She blinked, and the tears that had been lingering on the edge of her vision welled up and fell down her cheeks.

He heard it.

Soft as the sound was.

He turned back to her, and something like sympathy with concern overtook his calm madness for a moment.

“Is everything all right?”

He was asking, but her ears were failing her, and her hands were steadying.

Her thigh holster suddenly seemed a mile away, and when he came in close, trying to catch her, preventing her faint, she took the chance.

Her hands moved like lightening, and she smiled, thinking of Barry in that instant.

Jamming the blade into his heart, she watched as all emotions flickered over his face, ending with betrayal.

Blood bubbled out of his mouth and fell to stain the snow at their feet, and Diana collapsed with his weight in her arms, a switch of their former positions.

“Why?”

He gasped.

Diana was looking at him through a renewed veil of tears, and she could only shake her head.

“There was no other way.”

Silence reigned for a few moments after he stopped breathing, and she felt the crackling of warmth.

Impossible in the Arctic.

She refused to look up.

Lightening cracked across the sky, and she fought to remain calm.

She couldn’t avoid looking any longer.

Diana lifted her eyes to the sky to see a gold and red haze overtaking the usual white blue of the northern atmosphere, and she could have wept in relief.

He’d taken _forever_ , something she’d tease him about eventually, but he had done it.

A bit late, she thought, as she gazed down at Clark’s lifeless body, but better than not at all.

Reality began to dissolve, and she wondered how much she’d be able to remember.

Her vision went white, as if she had fainted into the snow, while time was starting to be re-written.

***

**END**

 

**Author's Note:**

> augh omfg i need to see it again asap.  
> now someone else needs to write a spy AU in the vein of the Man From Uncle. Pretty please?


End file.
